... nine Colbert momentsMr. Stephen Colbert had a great run in 2005, when The Colbert Report debuted and took off like a mighty eagle... with a disturbingly dedicated fanbase. This past year somehow managed to top all that, making Colbert and his show absolute pop culture giants and easily one of the biggest hits of 2006. I've been a fan ever since I first saw the man many years ago on The Daily Show and Strangers With Candy, so I feel like I've seen his career positively explode before my very eyes. Ohh, my boy's all grown up.

Now now, let's move on to my list before I get even more sappy and awkwardly maternal (the fact that Colbert's over twenty years older than me does not help the strangeness). Here are the top nine Colbert Report moments of 2006!

I was cleaning up some of the files on my old computer when I stumbled across one that brought back some interesting memories. It's a photograph of one of my all-time favorite celebrities! I remember being so amused by the picture the first time I saw it I immediately saved it (in fear of it disappearing off the face of the Internet in the near future, I guess). And now, I share it with all of you. See if you can guess who this celebrity is.

Okay, I'll go Gene Shalit for a second and give you a cheesy hint: This late-night TV star looks willing to "bear" it all!

When The Colbert Report premiered in November October, I don't think anyone expected the cultural impact the show would have. But, judging by the year Stephen Colbert has had, from being the featured speaker at the White House Correspondents dinner all the way to last night's hilarious presenting performance at the Emmys, it's safe to say that he's becoming as big a star as his boss and creative benefactor, Jon Stewart.

So it's no surprise that the folks at Global Language Monitor have found that not one, but two terms introduced on the Report have become the most buzzworthy TV terms in 2006, so buzzworthy that they've infiltrated the English language. One of them is a layup: "truthiness." But it seems like, in the span of less than a month, the term "Wikiality" has also become extremely buzzworthy. Also on the list of buzzworthy terms: "Dr. McDreamy," "Katie," "Katrina," and "Bush's War."

During last night's episode of The Colbert Report, Stephen called for his fans' help once again. I guess after the whole Wikipedia incident, he realized that he has great power over his viewers, most of whom are quite willing to do his Internet-bidding. This time around, Stephen found a website taking votes in naming a Hungarian bridge over the Danube River. After seeing that one of the names leading the polls is Chuck Norris, Stephen realized that it could just as well be the Stephen Colbert Bridge. Alright, that's where we come in. Check out this site with step-by-step directions to navigate through the website (which is totally in Hungarian) and get voting! And if you don't vote, then I've got to ask... "Why do you hate America?... And Hungary?"

Last night, Stephen Colbert devoted his popular Colbert Report segment "The Wørd" to everyone's favorite site for questionable research, Wikipedia. The word for the day was "Wikiality", citing that, due to the site's format, any assertion can become fact if enough of the site's users agreed with it.

To prove his point, he encouraged viewers to edit entries about elephants with the absurd statement that the population of elephants in the world has tripled in the last six months. Indeed, such an edit -- as well as one Stephen said he'd make about him saying Oregon was "Idaho's Portugal" -- were found under an account named "Stephencolbert" around the time the show was taped. As a result, the Wikipedia admins have protected a bunch of elephant-related pages and blocked the "Stephencolbert" account until they can verify that it was actually Stephen (or his producers) making those edits (I guess if it's him, it's funny. If it's not, it's vandalism).

For those who are curious about the segment, the funny video is on YouTube. You can see it after the jump.